When I found out the tree fell and looking at it that night I thought it was one of the pignut hickorys. After looking at more closely I believe its a oak and I think its a black oak. Can you guys tell me what you think. Here are some pics

DSC_0431.jpg (1.8 MiB) Viewed 348 times

It won't let me add more pics for some reason but that is a limb split in half. I will try to add more from the computer.

I "think" it is what I call red oak from the color of the heart wood. Kind of need to see a leaf though. There are dozens of oak species out there with similar bark formation and core colors. Sorry, that's the best I can do for ya.

I think I posted once before about the oaks. When I went to forestry school the tree identification course only identified white oak and red oak as there are many different species of each. The difference between the two groups are the leaves,,red oak leaves are pointed on the end of each lobe and the white oak the lobes are round. The saying at the time to help us remember was "Red man hunts with pointed (arrow) weapon (red oak) and white man uses round (lead ball) weapon (white oak). I tend to agree with dixie bell,,,,,,,check the leaf litter on the ground in the area and see what you find.

What works for me may not work for you and what works today may not work tomorrowDoug <- <- ~<- <- <- ~ <-

Looking in my tree book, it says that a black oak will have bark that is a shinny dark grey color when young, that turns to almost black with deep reddish cracks, and has a blocky look to it because of the deep horizontal groves across the ridges. The inner bark is a yellow or orange and is very distintive of Black Oak. Is used very little because of the many defects in the wood.

Red oak has a bark that is dark grey and smooth texture when young, and turns light grey with deep furrowed flat narrow ridges.

White oak has light grey bark broken into reddish scales.

Bur oak has a dark grey deeply furrowed bark with many ridges and scalesHope that helps you somewhat?

kygobbler wrote: I hate to have to admit this but I took Dendrology in college (20 years ago) and I always did good untill the leaves fell off and trying to spell the stupid latin names.

Yup I know what you are talking about and my dendrology course was 47 years ago and if we mispelled it we got it wrong We also had to id 100 samples of just a piece of wood. Glad I don't have to do it today.

What works for me may not work for you and what works today may not work tomorrowDoug <- <- ~<- <- <- ~ <-

Thanks for the pics Scott but I have one little problem with the pic you posted. Comparing your pic to the pic I posted of the split limb, are the colors different or the same? Im really starting to tell that my color blindness is getting worse because they look the same to me.

Retranger, my teacher was the same way on the spelling. One day when we was in the woods we was going down a steep hill to identify another tree. My foot slipped and out of instinct I grabbed a tree to catch myself. What's the one tree you don't want to grab a hold of.......a Devils Walking Stick. The teacher said that I found the tree laughing. When I turned in my answer I wrote Devils Walking Stick... Latin Name SOB tree for leaving a thorns in my hand. That was the only time I was able to get the Latin name wrong.

They do look the same, that's why I posted them. It looks to me like a Black Oak tree, if you can peal some of the bark off and see if it has the yellow or orange under bark, like shows in my pic, that will tell you for sure.